Pet Sematary takes a few steps forward

Sean Decker at dreadcentral.com reported that writer Jeff Buhler had shared news that he was coming aboard Paramount's the new Pet Sematary movie.  He told dreadcentral that Paramount had a script from Matt Greenburg, but that a new  outline for the story was accepted by Paramount and so a new draft is being written.  He speculated that it would be complete at the end of Summer.

He said that the original film has a "very special place" in his heart.

“The film fits perfectly in the time period [in which it was produced], and the source material is one of the Stephen King books that I read as a teenager that made me flip out, and I’ve read it more than once since then. It’s a fantastic book and a fantastic story.”

Calling the original, "Campy," in places, Buhler promised a more honest depection of grief and the horror of losing a child.

Interestingly, Buhler points to his own experience as a father as something that caused him to understand better the horror of losing a child very suddenly. "I think the one element that we are trying to bring to this version of Pet Sematary is a sense of truth and honesty in the horror and really take it back to the original material."

Thoughts of the original movie aside, what's  important is Buhler's promsie that the writers are being very "respectful" to the book.  He notes that there are elements in the novel  that were never brought to screen in either of the first two Pet Sematary's.  In other words -- he is making the case that there is enough room for another movie.

“We are being very respectful to the book,” he continued, “and we are not tying ourselves to anything in the first two films at all. We are [also] bringing in some fresh elements that speak to the spirit of the story that aren’t in either one.”

The full article is at: dreadcentral.com

CELL filming

Dread Central posted pictures today from the filming of CELL.  Where did they get the pictures?  Via my favorite King website,  Lilja's Library

The Dread Central article notes,

Paranormal Activity 2's Tod “Kip” Williams is directing; John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson star in the film, which recently began shooting in Atlanta. Producers are Richard Saperstein, Michael Benaroya, Brian Witten, and Shara Kay. The screenplay was written by Stephen King with revisions by Adam Alleca. 

Fuhrman plays a teenage neighbor of Cusack’s character who joins him and Jackson on their journey to safety after a mysterious pulse spreads like a virus through the human population. Keach will play the headmaster of a prep school where the survivors stop along their way.

Carrie Reviews Are Starting To Come In

The questions been -- where are the CARRIE reviews?  Well, I'm starting to spot them.

rottentomatoes.com is giving the movie an average rating of 5.4 out of 10.

Tim Hall at Seattle Pi give the film a B-, saying Moretz a "talented young actress" and that she and Moore bring out the best in each other (as actresses).  He wonders, however, what exactly the film does to make it any different from the 1976 version.  (blog.seattlepi.com)

Bruce DeMara at thestar.com isn't quite so generous. Giving the film 2 stars, he titles his review, "Carrie 2013 pales in comparison to 1976 original," and suggests in his opening line that the film is nothing more than an imitation of the 76 version.  It kinda goes downhill from there.  (thestar.com)

But Amy Nicholson at LA Weekly argues that Peirce didn't have to change anything for the movie to still pack a punch.   However, Nicholson seems to be on her own agenda, attacking " puritanism" and speaking of the dangers of religious leaders who are "trying to keep a new generation of young women from learning how their bodies work."  Huh?  Does she think religious leaders today don't want girls to know about their period, or about sex, or about. . . who knows what.  I'm a pastor (so I count int he "religious leaders" category) with four daughters, and we have no fears of our girls learning how their bodies work.  

Nicholson seizes on Carrie as her own own platform to rant nutty unsupported attacks at groups of people she doesn't like (Home Schooling seems to also be on her naughty list.)  Nicholson isn't reviewing a movie, she's standing on top of a movie throwing darts.

So -- my review of her review is that she sounds like a very angry person who wishes she was Carrie.  Think I'm wrong?  She writes, "what’s scariest about Carrie in 2013 isn’t that this wounded teenage girl has the power to kill—it’s that there are thousands of girls like her with no power at all." (laweekly.com)

William Gross at film.com give CARRIE a 5.8 out of 10.  He suggests that the movie "fails to become its own satisfyingly whole interpretation of coming-of-age horrors both literal and figurative. Its bloodshed may be all dressed up, but it ultimately has nowhere to go." (film.com) 

And the reviews that matter. . . DREAD CENTRAL!  Staci Layne gives it 3.5 out of 5 stars.  Layne is pretty enthusiastic about the film, writing, "I am pleased to report that the Carrie remake takes the material seriously, and what’s more, it stays true to the Stephen King novel." And concludes, "People who haven’t seen the original will love it, and people who have seen the original should at least like it. (dreadcentral.com)

Room 237 Heads To DVD

From the Press Release
In 1980 Stanley Kubrick, who had earlier created landmarks in the genres of black comedy (Dr. Strangelove) and science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey), released his masterpiece of modern horror, The Shining. Over 30 years later we're still struggling to unearth its hidden meanings. Rodney Ascher's wry and provocative documentary ROOM 237 fuses fact, fiction and speculation through interviews with both fervent fans of the film and scholars, creating a kaleidoscopic deconstruction of Kubrick's controversial classic. It comes to Blu-ray and double-disc DVD from IFC Midnight on September 24, 2013. The bonus-filled discs have SRPs, respectively, of $29.98 and $27.98.

Special Features

"The mstrmnd Speaks: Commentary with Kevin McLeod" (McLeod is a key figure in the online examination of Kubrick's film.)

"Secrets of The Shining," an hour-long panel discussion from the first Stanley Film Festival, an event at Colorado's historic Stanley Hotel, which inspired one-time guest Stephen King to write his novel

11 Deleted Scenes

"The Making of the Music" featurette

Mondo Poster Design Discussion with Artist Aled Lewis

Trailers

SOURCE: www.dreadcentral.com

Doctor Sleep You're Lookin' Good!

Wow!  I'm loving the new Cemetery Dance artwork for Doctor Sleep.  Interesting how a books pictures can make me so interested in the book itself.  Even as a kid, when I had a novel with pictures in it, I would thumb through and stare at the pictures and wonder what was to come. I remember reading The Stand for the first time, and making it a goal to get to the picture where Lloy was in the prison cell reaching for a dead body.

The Woman In Black (isn't that a great name!) at dreadcentral.com writes at their website:

Author Brian James Freeman posted the following photos on his website, and Cemetery Dance provided a bit more elaboration: 

Vincent Chong has turned in the rest of his original color interiors for [the] special edition of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, which sold out just one week after it was announced, and [here's] a little sneak peek at ... main characters Abra Stone [and] Rose Flanagan, who is known as Rose the Hat by the True Knot, the nomadic family she travels with.

She notes, "We don't know what's up with the train, but it sure is plenty spooky." YES!

Will the book be as good as the pictures?  It's Stephen King writing a horror  novel. . . !

CARRIE stills

Here are two new stills from the upcoming CARRIE movie. Spotted first at dreadcentral.com

King ON Shining Prequel, I Would Be Just As Happy If It Didn't Happen

With recent news  that the Overlook, a prequel to The Shining, might actually become a reality -- many of us are interested in Stephen King's reaction.

Uncle Creepy at Dread Central posted the following from King (via EW),

"I’m not saying I would put a stop to the project because I’m sort of a nice guy," King tells Entertainment Weekly. "When I was a kid, my mother said, ‘Stephen if you were a girl, you’d always be pregnant.’ I have a tendency to let people develop things. I’m always curious to see what will happen. But you know what? I would be just as happy if it didn’t happen."

www.dreadcentral.com

Moore's Review Of ROOM 237

image credit: dreadcentral.com

Here is a wonderful review of the documentary "Room 237" that doesn't lower itself to drooling.  The review is refreshingly honest when it says,

The documentary "Room 237" is an ostensibly thoughtful deep reading, a deconstruction of Stanley Kubrick's film of Stephen King's 1980 novel "The Shining." What it really is, is a bunch of obsessives obsessing about an obsessive movie maker's obsessive movie.

Now who can disagree with that?

The review comes from Roger Moore at McClatchy-Tribune News Service and is titled, "Yes, you can watch a favorite film too many times for your own good."

About the documentaries commentators  Moore writes, "They have examined the film, frame by frame, parsing its images like a cinematic "Da Vinci Code." And the reason they can do this is that Kubrick was just as obsessed as they are."

So what are some of the crazy interpretations of The Shining?  Moore lists some of them being that the film is about the destruction of American Indians, the Holocaust, the Apollo Moon landings, or "Kubrick's favorite bugaboo, sexuality?"  Not having seen the film, I'll vote for the Apollo Moon landing, just because I think it's the most nuts!

And here's the thing -- he liked it!  Moore gives the film 3 out of four stars, rating it a grade of "B." Not bad.

Check out the full review, "Yes, you can watch a favorite film too many times for your own good.

The Shining's Deleted Ending Script

image credit: www.dreadcentral.com

theoverlookhotel.com has posted the screenplay for the deleted original ending of The Shining. When the Shining was originally released, there was a hospital scene between the first shot of Jack frozen and the closing shot of the framed photo, bearing the  date July 4, 1921.

The website notes,

Kubrick decided to remove the scene very shortly after the U.S. opening, dispatching assistants to excise the scene from the dozens of prints showing in Los Angeles and New York City. All known copies of the scene were reportedly destroyed, although it is rumored that one surviving copy may exist.

The website also cites Kubrick’s co-screenwriter, Diane Johnson, saying that Kubrick felt it was important the audience know that Wendy and Danny were okay.  "He had a soft spot for Wendy and Danny and thought that, at the end of a horror film, the audience should be reassured that everything was back to normal."

Normal indeed.  Unfortunately, Stephen King also has a soft spot for Danny -- and it doesn't just end in a hospital!

Dread Central Offers More News On UNDER THE DOME

image credit: behance.net

Dread Central's The Woman In Black has posted a newsy article on the upcoming CBS series, Under The Dome. The series will premiere June 24th.  She discusses the promo video for the series, noting some important highlights.

Here's  what I liked:

The King/Vaughan presentation included a few clips and animatics illustrating how graphic the show might be. People and cows sliced in half by the dome landing, a plane crashing into the dome in mid-air, townspeople ransacking supermarkets and washing their bloody hammers from God knows what kinds of murder.

 King and Vauhan discussed some of the specific sci-fi nature ofthe Dome itself.  People sliced in half, planes blasting into the dome, and if you get too close to it, Vaughan  said "pacemakers will explode out of your body."

And there is this note about a major difference from the book:

The novel only covers a short period of time. The idea of the TV series is not to extend it for a week, but months... It’s going to bring out the best in some people and the worst in other people.”

The full article is HERE.

DEADLINE: Breathing Method the Movie

This is from Mike Fleming at deadline.com

Hot off an $18 million opening-weekend gross of Sinister that was six times its $3 million budget, Jason Blum‘s Blumhouse has teamed with Sinister director and co-writer Scott Derrickson on a screen adaptation of the Stephen King novella Breathing Method. They’ve secured an option on King’s work from the author, and the script will be written by Scott Teems. They haven’t yet set it for financing.

The full article, including a short synopsis, is at deadline.com

thanks to Bryant Burnette

Dread Central: Presenting Carrie White

image credit: Dread Central

Uncle Creepy at Dread Central posted, "Entertainment Weekly scored the very first images of Chloe Moretz as Carrie White and Julianne Moore as her crazy mama!"  (HERE)

Not quite as . . . clean and neat. . . as the original, is it?  Or even the remake.  This looks like a girl who really could take down the house!

The Dark Tower Movie

After posting that Warner Bros. had passed on The Dark Tower, Dread Central issued a new article from Uncle Creepy stating not so fast, the Dark Tower might yet rise again.

Dread Central cites Deadline:

Media Rights Capital is in serious talks to take on The Dark Tower after Warner Bros. declined to make what potentially amounts to three feature films and two limited run TV series. 

The article is HERE.

Question: Is the Dark Tower movie  something that still gets King readers excited, or have we become a bit numb to the whole thing?

DREAD CENTRAL: Stephen King Films Head To Blu-Ray

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

CARRIE goes to Comic-Con

image credit: Dread Central  HERE

Dread Central's Uncle Creepy posted today:

The first artwork for the remake of Carrie is ready to stare down all who dare to walk through the doors at this year's Comic-Con, and we have a shot of it right here for all those not around to meet her gaze! Dig it!

The Dread Central article is HERE.

Makes me wonder what the scene would look like if Carrie actually did go to Comic-Con.  She'd make a mess of those exhibits, that's for sure.  Actually, a whole series of posters comes to mind.  Carrie goes to congress would be nice.  How about Carrie goes to Disneyland.  Carrie goes to Time Square.  How about Carrie goes to the Stanley Hotel. Carrie visits Haven.

THINNER headed to Blue-ray

Stephen King's THINNER will be released on Blue-ray August 21.  No special features have been announced.  (Source: Dread Central) It is currently selling at Amazon for $13.50.

Dread Central's Uncle Creepy writes:

We don't know where Olive Films came from, but we do know we are happy they are here. The company has been releasing a battery of older and classic horror films on Blu-ray, and next on their list is the Tom Holland directed Stephen King classic Thinner!

Dread Central: Ivana Baquero reading for Sue Snell

This is from Dread Central, HERE.  It is Ivana Baquero reading for the part of Sue Snell.  Baquero stars in Pan's Labyrinth.  She didn't get cast as Snell, but might yet get the role of Chris.

SYFY takes on EYES OF THE DRAGON

picture credit, Darek Kocurek (HERE)

This is exciting: I've hoped for years that Eyes Of The Dragon would become a movie.  Of course, I've  also always  hoped Disney would do it. Dread Central, EW and Lilja's Library are all reporting that SYFY (that's not how you spell Sifi) has decided to take the project on.  I'm hoping for a mini-series format.

Lilja's Library posted (linking from EW)

Stephen King’s fantasy novel Eyes of the Dragon could at last become a movie or miniseries. 

The 1987 bestseller is being developed by Syfy as a longform project, along with a scripted drama series based on the comic Grey Legion and two high-concept movie projects. The network is set to announce all the titles later today at its upfront presentation in New York City. 

Michael Taylor (Battlestar Galactica) and Jeff Vintar (I, Robot) will pen the Dragon script, with Taylor and Bill Haber as executive producers

Dreadcentral reports:

Among the scripted development projects are adaptations of popular works by best-selling novelists such as Stephen King (Eyes of the Dragon). . . 

Eyes of the Dragon – Based on Stephen King’s best-selling novel. A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must battle for the throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of good to fight for what is rightfully his. Writers: Michael Taylor (Defiance, Battlestar Galactica) and Jeff Vintar (I, Robot). Executive producers: Michael Taylor and Bill Haber. A production of Universal Cable Productions and Ostar Productions.

Doctor Gash's Trip Back to The 80's

I enjoyed Dread Central’s “Doctor Gash's Tip of the Scalpel: A Tribute to Stephen King Part 2.”  It is a time warp back to the 80's.

We all know that this was a particularly productive era for King, giving us the first glimpse of The Dark Tower, Fire Starter, Cujo, IT and so much more.  The article focuses particularly on Misery as a center piece to King’s work in the 80's.

It was also an era of Stephen King movies.  It seemed in those days if King wrote it, someone was ready to fork over the money to put it on screen.  Compare that to these days, when if King wrote it, someone is ready to talk about putting up the money to get it on that big screen.

When discussing The Runningman movie, Dr. Gash points out that it starred not one, but two U.S. Governors: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura.  The Running Man’s similarities to The Hunger Games is not lost on the good doctor, who writes, “One can only speculate how much, if any, inspiration Suzanne Collins drew from The Running Man for her uber-hit The Hunger Games books, but one does have to acknowledge the similarities.”

Dr. Gash calls 1982 and 1983 the most impressive years of the decade.  King gave us: The Dark Tower, Christine, Pet Sematery, Cycle of the Warewolf. . . and the list goes on.

I enjoyed this article a lot.  I wish Dr. Gash had honed in closer to IT, as I think it is actually the center piece of the decade.

The full article is HERE.

Chloe Moretz to play CARRIE

Chloe Moretz most recently starred in Martin Scorcese's film "Hugo."

image credit: CNN.COM

Dread Central's Uncle Creepy has posted news that Chloe Moretz has signed on for the next screen redux of Stephen King's Carrie.

Moretz just took to her Twitter account with the following ...

"Never been so happy in my life! Thank you Kim Pierce and thank u MGM for the chance of a lifetime i will never forget!" 

That sounds like a resounding YES to MGM's offer, does it not? 

Full story: Dread Central HERE

A CNN article is HERE.